There’s no question that the face of shopping is going to look quite different for some time. But just as we’ve all embraced Zoom at home and are using technology across our lives, we’re about to discover new ways to shop for beauty products.

Last week, Jo booked in for a very exciting new online shopping consultation with Guerlain. Booking online – the link is here – she spent half an instructive hour chatting with Lauren Carlton, who’s more normally to be found in Selfridges, where she’s Business Manager for Guerlain. (Lauren was in the rather nice spare room of her house outside London.)

Now, when stores do reopen, it’s going to be very much a look-don’t-touch approach, so the personal attention during an online session is really helpful. We weren’t sure how well it would work, but Jo picked up several beauty tips (who says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks?), including one for pressing Guerlain Abeille Royale Youth Watery Oil into her complexion to freshen up her make-up and give skin a boost, mid-way through the day.

New product-wise, Jo learned about how good old Super Aqua Serum has morphed into Super Aqua Emulsion (and got her head around the new formulations – Light/Universal/Rich) – and at the end, happily chatted fragrance for a few minutes.

This is where Jo got really impressed, because after just a couple of minutes, Lauren came up with a suggestion for a new fragrance – which happened to be the same one, Angelique Noire, as Jo had been recommended after a digital fragrance consultation in Harrods. (Well, in truth, one of two scents that were recommended then – but that’s pretty cool.)

You have the option of talking through specific beauty concerns, having a skincare consultation, asking for looks to be demo-ed… (A lot of the women Lauren has talked to have had real complexion challenges during lockdown, from loss of radiance to breakouts.)

The consultant can actually SEE you, so recommendations are pretty accurate – and afterwards, Lauren followed up with a bundle of samples for Jo, as she would with any online client. (Expect much more sampling from beauty brands, moving forward, as we enter the look-don’t-touch shopping era.)

If you don’t have Zoom, you can opt for a 15-minute phone consultation. And what we love about this is that quite apart from being invaluable for those who are less-than-keen to return to an in-store shopping experience, they’re going to be fab for those who simply don’t live within striking distance of a Guerlain counter. And one more thing that we really like: Lauren mentioned one consultation with a male customer who wanted make-up advice – something he’d probably have been far too shy to ask for in a department store setting.

Basically, now, if you live from John O’Groats or Land’s End you can take advantage of an expert Guerlain consultation – something that just wasn’t possible, before the virus. So: we have seen the future of make-up shopping. It’s a tiny bit pixellated – that’s Zoom for you – but you can do it in your trackie bottoms and slippers, if you fancy.

That’s our kind of Masterclass.

Click here to book

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